To commemorate Chandra's ten years in orbit, a trailer was produced to spotlight NASA's premier X-ray telescope. This short video begins with Galileo some 400 years ago and brings the viewer to modern astronomy, of which Chandra's high-energy Universe plays a critical role.

CHANDRA'S EXTRAORDINARY UNIVERSE (Part I)

Transcript: In Florence, Italy, in the year 1609, the world changed. Using a small
telescope, Galileo proved that the Earth is not distinct from the universe, but
part of it. And he showed that there is much more to the universe than we
see with the naked eye.

In the twentieth century, astronomers made another revolutionary discovery – that optical telescopes reveal only a portion of the universe. Telescopes sensitive to invisible wavelengths of light have detected microwave radiation from the Big Bang, infrared radiation from proto-planetary disks around stars, and X-rays from explosions produced by black holes. On July 23rd, 1999, the most powerful X-ray telescope ever made began its exploration of the hot universe. Chandra, exploring your universe.

Credit: NASA/CXC

Produced by I.Albinson, Script by W.Tucker, Directed by: K.Arcand, Coordinaton by A.Hobart

Transcript: Since 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has transformed our view of the high-energy universe with its ability to make exquisite X-ray images of star clusters, supernova remnants, galactic eruptions, and collisions between clusters of galaxies. Chandra has probed the geometry of space-time around black holes, traced the dispersal of calcium and other elements by supernovas, and revealed that whirling neutron stars only twelve miles in diameter can generate streams of high-energy particles that extend for light years. Chandra has found cosmic generators millions of times more powerful than neutron stars - rapidly spinning, supergiant black holes in the centers of galaxies. There, energy from the rotation of the black hole and surrounding gas is converted into powerful jets and winds that can influence the destiny of an entire galaxy. On an even greater scale, Chandra has helped to confirm that galaxies and the universe are dominated by other forms of darkness, called dark matter and dark energy. In the distant past, dark matter pulled material together to form galaxies and galaxy clusters, but now, it appears that dark energy, which may be a much different phenomenon, has stopped the process and is causing the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. The nature of dark matter and dark energy is still a deep mystery. As Chandra expands the realm of the known, it continues to raise new questions and point the way for future exploration.